1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data protecting method and apparatus, more particularly to a method and apparatus for protecting digital information, which can prevent unauthorized access to digital information.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advance of computer technology, almost all government organizations, research centers, academic institutes, and companies now use computers to prepare documents and establish files. In addition, with the fast development of computer peripheral storage equipment, they are now used to store important documents, file data, technical data, confidential data, and backup copies of the data, etc. Use of storage devices to store documents or files not only can shorten the time to create and locate data, but also can reduce use of paper and increase the lifetime of stored data. Moreover, since portable storage devices are easy to store, convenient to carry, and compact, users are accustomed to using portable storage devices to store data and backup data. However, the convenience provided by portable storage devices increases risks of leakage of data stored in a computer. To overcome the aforesaid drawback, various methods of protecting data using encryption have been proposed. Nonetheless, since encrypted data may still be cracked by processing the encrypted data in a number of computers and doing a large number of calculations, how to enhance data security so that protected data cannot be recovered after being stolen is a subject of primary concern.